Andrea Ramirez, BS, is a Clinical Research Coordinator and psychometrist whose work focuses on aging, cognitive health, and dementia-related research in South Texas. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Integrated Health Sciences from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), where she began her research career as an intern at the UTRGV Memory and Aging Center. During her early training, she contributed to Memoria sin Fronteras, a pilot program designed to provide culturally tailored art-based interventions for older adults in the community. She later completed a summer research internship at the Memory and Aging Center, where she worked on a project examining domain-specific neuropsychological differences across cognitive status groups within the UTRGV South Texas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center cohort. During this time, she also received training as a psychometrist. Her experience includes administering psychometric evaluations, coordinating clinical and community-based studies, and supporting research on cognitive aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and health disparities in underserved communities. She aspires to become a physician and hopes to integrate clinical medicine, neuroscience research, and community health advocacy in her future career.

She has since transitioned into her current role as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the UTRGV Memory and Aging Center. She contributes to the Diverse VCID (DVCID) Project under the mentorship of Clinical Core Leader Dr. Silvia Mejia-Arango, working closely with Dr. Mejia to conduct neurocognitive assessments, coordinate participant engagement, and support community-centered research initiatives focused on older adult populations.